Poll: Do aesthetics ever influence your component selection?

If one thing demarks enthusiast components from other computer hardware, it has to be their aesthetics. Whether you're looking at elegant copper heatsinks, motherboards with carefully picked out color schemes, or graphics card shrouds emblazoned with cyborg frogs, having the most attractive-looking piece of hardware seems like a requirement in this market.

TR reader Mike shared a similar observation with us, and he suggested we whip up a new poll to see how other readers felt:

I was perusing Newegg (as I often do when reading various articles) when an all black motherboard by EVGA caught my eye. I thought to myself, "that would look badass in my rig!" So I started looking for other all black components. Which naturally led me to think about my fellow Gerbils and led me to this question . . . "Do aesthetics ever influence your component selection?"

The poll is now up, and you may cast your vote either below or on our front page. Are TR gerbils biased toward attractive-looking components, or do they keep their heads cool, picking hardware based on its specs and performance alone? We shall soon find out.

In the meantime, we've got the results from our previous poll, which dealt with the topic of gigabytes versus gibibytes. Out of 5,526 voters, 85% use the old-school terminology and would say a PC has 4GB of RAM. 5% made a jab at the word "gibibyte," but the remaining 10% wouldn't hesitate to use the term in the real world.